SW vs. SE 1

[65Roses]

I'm currently evaluating each program by going through the tutorials of each. Currently my company has a few seats of SE but my department only uses AutoCad. I've been given the choice of which program to upgrade to. Since our company all ready has a few seats of SE does it make sense to select SE on that basis? We are a manufacturing facility so we don't do much design work. We occasionally design or modify jigs and fixtures. I'm hoping to import CATIA files and build jigs and fixtures around our product. I know SW has a lot more seats out there in use and it would probably benefit me in the long run if I was familar with SW if I had to ever change jobs. On the other hand SE may be the best fit for our company since others are all ready using SE and we could consult with one another to learn and improve using the SE software. Any opinions?

 

[aamoroso]

I wouldnt expect many people in a SW forum to recomend SE.

Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

SW, SE or Inventor... thread559-97268
Solidworks Vs Solid edge thread559-91428


Making the best use of this Forum. faq559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions. faq559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of. faq559-520

 

[Heckler]

If your company has SE I'm shocked that they are even letting you have a choice. It seems from a cost standpoint SE makes sense.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 2.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
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_`\(,_
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Do you trust your intuition or go with the flow?

 

[ctopher]

I agree with Heckler. But if your company is for some reason looking for CAD change, SW is the way to go.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
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[rporter]

The first question I would ask is what does your company use SE for? If you need to interact with the SE design then is your company looking at changing the SE seats if you choose SW? Your department is currently using Auto Cad. What will it take to convert all the current files to the new Cad package? You will be importing Catia files to use in crating your fixtures. Which Cad package will import the Catia files with the least amount of trouble. WHich package will fit your departments needs best?

Now ask yourself what are the posibilitys of having to change to just one cad package company wide.

If you give a lot of thought to these questions you will be closer to coming to a desission.

Good Luck

Roger

 

[65Roses]

Our seats of SE were purchased one at a time. SE is used in a different department and at different manufacturing sites. I would say we have no more than 2-3 seats. The only reason the seats were purchased was because the customer of those departments uses Unigraphics. I don't think that is a valid reason for selecting one package over the other. Since we don't interact with these other departments or share files I'm free to chose which ever package fits our group the best.

For my evaluation I'm working through the tutorials of each comparing notes as I go. I see things I like about both as well as things I dislike.

Thank you to rporter for a non biased reply.

 

[SolidsMaster]

check with your vendors, you'll find SW more accepted. But either will function, I prefer SW myself.

John

 

[tz101]

I have used both SW and SE, and will try to be objective here.

GET SW IMMEDIATELY!!! AVOID SE AT ALL COST!!!

Hope that was helpful.

 

[65Roses]

I'm finding SW easier to learn than SE as I go through the tutorials. After I finish a tutorial which is similiar in each package I attempt to design an identical part in both using the commands learned in the previous tutorial. I'm finding SW is much easier to use in performing this task.

 

[PaulnKY]

My two cents. We looked at Inventor, Solid edge and Solid Works. Inventor is incapable of doing what we need, solid edge migh be capable but thier people couldnb't figure out how to make it work. Solid Works work well.

We make sheet metal and I use alot of spreadsheet driven assemblies. In all the packages you can have a sheet metal part where the bend angle can go from 0 to 90° of from 90° to 180° only SolidWorks was able to cross the 90° mark. say change from 75° to 130°. This depended on the part being turned into sheet metal as the last step in part construction. If you start as a sheet metal part the result was the same.

 

[pulsetech]

Our company evaluated Inventor, SE, and SolidWorks. We went with SolidWorks due to the following factors in our benchmark:

1) Ease of use during evaluation
2) More SW users in both our customer and supplier base
3) Legacy Data Maintainance (with the DWG Editor built in to SW)
4) e-drawings
5) Mold Flow Xpress and Cosmos Xpress
6) Ease of VB integration

Just a insight into what influenced our decision....note the above are just some of the highlights in our benchmark that made us choose SW.

Good Luck

 

[65Roses]

I ended up selecting SW over SE. At first managers balked at the idea since we have a couple of seats of SE. But in the end they agreed since I did a thorough evaluation. Those who purchased SE failed to do any evaluation. The other guys are a little sore with me but they work in a different department anyway.

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

 

[ctopher]

Nice job! Welcome to the SW team!

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
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[65Roses]

Just got off of the phone with SE VAR. Boy was he mad that I selected SW. He went on and on about how my feeling about SW would change after using it for a few months. He also stated several "tatics" SW folks use to sell their software. Everything I used to make my decision was based on research I did on my own and not what a salesperson or fancy brochure told me.

Isn't it funny that they are the one's offering a referral program to get new clients.

I have one question? What file types of CATIA can I open with SW. SE VAR claimed that SW couldn't do that at all and SE was the only package that could translate CATIA files. I find this hard to believe.

 

[GBor]

Your SE VAR may be somewhat right on this issue. SolidWorks 2005 lists CATIA Graphics files (.cgr), but I understand that there is a third-party translator (ellysium?) that works EXTREMELY well between SolidWorks and CATIA.

Garland E. Borowski, PE

 

[J-C]

Catia seems to be one major CAD program Solidworks won't translate. Wonder if the parent company is holding them back?

Not exactly sure what the CGR format is, thinks it's some kind of graphics format that Catia can export.



Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[ctopher]

SolidWorks 2005 opens CATIA .cgr
I have done it. Works well.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
FAQ371-376
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-1091
FAQ559-716

 

[J-C]

Can you do anything to it though?

Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.

 

[SBaugh]

You shouldn't be able to since it's just a Graphic file.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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